The 2024 regular season is rolling into Week 8. The next week of preparation for the Steelers is underway as they prepare to host the New York Giants on Monday night with head coach Mike Tomlin taking to the podium to address in the media for our beloved Tomlin Tuesday. With plenty of questions asked by those in attendance, it is once again time for a players mentioned article. Remember these are players where a specific question was asked during the Q&A period.

Russell Wilson

Coach Tomlin was asked about what he liked from Russell Wilson after reviewing the tape.

“His poise. I thought his experience was really evident. He was unmoved and unshaken by the lack of fluidity with the start. But I think that’s kind of reflective of a guy that’s done it at a high level for over a decade, a guy that’s a world champion, a guy that’s whatever, 9, 10-time Pro Bowler, he’s just seen a lot in this game and that’s in his back pocket, just like his throwing abilities. And it gets you in and out of circumstances, certainly.”

Coach Tomlin was asked what the next step he wants to see Russell Wilson take.

“Play winning football, and to engineer and construct victory more fluidly. I think that is our goal as a collective, or subsections of that collective every week. How can we engineer victory more consistently and more fluidly?”

Coach Tomlin was asked about what makes Russell Wilson’s deep ball so effective.

“I don’t know that it is. You know, he has arm talent, he has arm strength, he’s got ability to change his trajectory. He’s got pinpoint accuracy in terms of dropping balls, and so he’s very talented in that area. I don’t know that there’s anything going on mechanically different that distinguishes it.”

Coach Tomlin was asked what makes Russell Wilson so effective in play action.

“Running game. Play action is only effective if you got a commitment and an effective running game.”

Coach Tomlin was asked about Russell Wilson’s ability to unlock deeper plays downfield using play action.

“Sometimes it’s just not always him. You guys are pulling from a very small sample size. It might just be how the New York Jets chose to play defense. They play a lot of man-to-man. We lined up in some bunches and did some play action passes, and like Calvin [Austin III] came free late. And so sometimes it’s not about us, to be quite honest with you, particularly if you’re just talking about a small sample size, you can write a story on a collection of plays, but it’s not necessarily reality. And I think anything in terms of analysis of Russ regarding our play pass relative to other games, the answers might just lie in the fact that it’s a small sample size versus one opponent.”

Coach Tomlin was asked about the trajectory of Russell Wilson’s deep ball and how it can help with 50-50 balls.

“I don’t know how unique it is. I think everybody that throws a good deep ball has got air under it.”

Coach Tomlin was asked if Russell Wilson is going to start on Monday.

“He’s scheduled to take first team reps when we begin tomorrow. We’ll see where the week leads us.”

Ryan McCollum

Coach Tomlin was asked about the performance of Ryan McCollum.

“I thought it was double thumbs up. Again, I’m not surprised by that. As I mentioned, when I talked about Ryan last week, he’s mature beyond his years. He brings a really professional approach. He’s really urgent in everything he does, and I just think that that tees you up for performance. I don’t think any of us were surprised that he was above the line in terms of how you performed last week. But as I mentioned, this week is a new week, and with new weeks comes new challenges, and some of them big in the form of Dexter Lawrence.”

Joey Porter Jr., Minkah Fitzpatrick, Donte Jackson, & DeShon Elliott

Coach Tomlin was asked about how he thought Joey Porter Jr. performed this week and the performance of the secondary overall. In his response, Coach Tomlin brought up Minkah Ftizpatrick, Donte Jackson, and DeShon Elliott.

“I thought Joey was really solid,and I think he is getting more solid because of the attention the detail and the urgency that he’s taken to practice. He’s really evolving as a developing professional, in terms of where to set his energy and focus his energies and practice settings, and oftentimes that changes week to week because of the challenges that you face change week to week, the schematics you choose to employ change week to week, the talent on the other side changes. And so, it requires different adjustments. I think that he’s no longer taking the cookie cutters approach to his prep. I think he’s got enough experience now where he’s able to cater his approach to best position him to perform with a high level of consistency. And in the secondary, I just think that we do a really good job of communicating continually pregame, in-game. We were talking about the adjustment component. A lot of that is secondary related. I think we got some really stable pieces back there, guys like Minkah [Fitzpatrick], who’ve been around and been a component of our program and are really stabilizing presences in regards to your question. But also some of the guys that are new to us are not new to the NFL. Can’t say enough about guys like [Donte] Jackson and [DeShon] Elliott and what they’ve been able to give us in terms of some of those things. When you work with new guys, oftentimes, you know about their talents. I’m familiar with D. Jackson and D. Elliott’s talents. We’ve played against them a lot over the years and scouting them and so forth. But to work with them day to day and to see their professional approach to business, how they articulate and absorb football, it’s been awesome, and it’s probably one of the reasons why we’re, we’re able to adjust the way that we are.”

Najee Harris, Pat Freiermuth, Darnell Washington, & Dan Moore Jr.

Coach Tomlin was asked about how they have been able to sustain the run game with so many moving parts and Najee Harris getting chunk plays in the running game. In his response, Coach Tomlin also mentioned Pat Freiermuth, Darnell Washington, and Dan Moore Jr.

“I just think that we’ve got a collective of young guys who are growing and growing together, and I think cohesion is a component of it, continuity is a component of it. And so, it’s reasonable to expect those things to get better. Our collective of Pat [Freiermuth] and Darnell [Washington] at tight end is in its second year. Some of our young offensive linemen have been around a little bit now. They’ve kind of grown up with ‘Naj’ [Najee Harris]. Dan Moore, for example, and so I think it’s reasonable to expect cumulative effect to reveal itself in regards to some of that. But also just in general, man, I’ve got to give our guys a lot of credit. Week in and week out, we just assess what’s available to us, our resources, whether it’s manpower or what have you, and we formulate a plan that we think is workable, and those guys work the plan. And so those guys deserve a lot of the credit, guys that we’ve been talking about, like Ryan McCollum and others who are who are adapting and taking advantage of opportunities and living out their dreams.”

Justin Fields

Coach Tomlin was asked about how he’d like Justin Fields to make the most of the current situation.

“I just want Justin to be prepared to get ready to play like he’s done. I’m refusing to acknowledge whatever changes you just acknowledged. We’re building a plan to beat the New York football Giants this week. We’ve got two capable guys. We’re going to ready them. They both need to be ready to work.”

Coach Tomlin was asked about how difficult it is to have a conversation with a player like Justin Fields after seeing his role switch.

“I don’t worry about the difficulty of conversations. It’s about whether or not they’re necessary. We’re pursuing big business here. Comfort is not a component of what we’re chasing.”

Beanie Bishop

Coach Tomlin was asked what some of the veteran players in the secondary do for the younger guys like Beanie Bishop.

“They steady the waters, and they’re really good communicators. And sometimes good communication is not vocally in the moment, but it’s before the moment. If it’s third and 11 and we’re in a defensive huddle and he’s able to say, ‘Hey, Beanie  watch out. Remember, on third down and 11, they have a propensity to do this.’ And that way, when you’re at the line of scrimmage, oftentimes you’ve checked certain boxes and you’ve talked about certain things. And so the veteran players sees around corner, some. You know, if we’re behind the chains, ‘Hey, watch the screen.’ Oftentimes, young and inexperienced players focus their energies on what it is they need to do. The baseline execution of assignments. Whereas guys that have been doing it for a while, particularly at a high level, they’re so beyond that. They look at game circumstances, offensive personnel usage, offensive formation structure. There’s a lot of means of gathering information. The key is, how do you share that information across the defense?”

Cam Heyward

Coach Tomlin was asked why Cameron Heyward has been able to be effective at a position that doesn’t really lend itself to a lot of longevity.

“It’s who he is. That’s why we were attracted to him. He brought that with him from Columbus, Ohio. In terms of why he’s able to be uniquely effective for a long period of time, he’s a power player who happens to be athletic. Those power players grow old more gracefully than the oversized athletes. I imagine at 45, you couldn’t move Cam out of a gap. You know what I mean. The power players generally age more gracefully, and he is a power player.”

Broderick Jones

Coach Tomlin was asked about his assessment of Broderick Jones’ play this season.

“I like the solid trajectory of his growth and development. He has some challenges early on in team development. He missed some time and so forth due to minor injuries. But just largely looking at the trajectory of his play, I’m pleased with it. I like the professional approach that he brings to work, and I just think it’s moving in the right direction, and it needs to continue.”

Roman Wilson

Coach Tomlin was asked if Roman Wilson was scratched because of his hamstring injury as well as his availability for this week.

“He missed some practice time because of the hammy. And as we’ve talked repeatedly in this setting, Roman needs to work for me to really consider him. His participation got compromised some last week. And so really, once it got compromised, I moved on.”

James Pierre

Coach Tomlin was asked about his assessment of James Pierre being called on in Week 7.

“That is why I brought him back. James [Pierre] is highly professional, always ready, very detailed. He doesn’t back down from challenges. Man, he is the type of a guy that you don’t find yourself putting direct eyes on, even though he’s infused into the game. And I think that’s the biggest compliment that I can give him as a coach. When we put him in the game, I was still watching the game as opposed to watching him.”

Nick Herbig & Zach Frazier

Coach Tomlin was asked if the status of Nick Herbig and Zach Frazier was in regards to the game or the start of the week.

“For the start of the week. We’ll see where the week leads us.”

Mike Tomlin’s complete press conference can be seen here:

Coach Tomlin speaks to the media ahead of our Week 8 game against the Giants. @PNCBank

📺: #NYGvsPIT 10/28 at 8:15 PM ET on ESPN https://t.co/6wy8v8HvoZ

— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) October 22, 2024